Hitting the 10,000 mark on Twitter; Halfway up Mt. Twitterest!

I did it !!
A few months ago I hit 10,000 mark on my Twitter account, which is one third of the followers Bernie Sanders typically has at a campaign rally. Hitting 10,000 was very exciting, but didn’t change my life.

A flood of 140 emotions
I’m happy I got 10,000 followers, but to get major traffic or respect on Twitter, you need at least 100,000. Still, hitting a milestone felt good! On the other hand, I seem to have Twittered away more than an hour a day for the last year achieving this goal. I often ask myself, “was it worth it?” It’s hard to know if social media is worth your time, because the real reward only comes once you have developed a huge following and superior skills.

The reward comes at the end
Having been a student of the spiritual world over twenty-five years, certain phrases still resonate in my mind: “The reward comes at the end.” We spend years, decades and our entire life meditating to reach a lofty spiritual goal. But, we don’t get the rewards incrementally. We get the reward only when we reach the destination. Twitter, much like life seems to operate according to the same logic.

Twitter lends itself to exponential growth
You need a foundation to grow on Twitter, and you won’t get much return on your investment (even if you are Donald Trump) while you are building that foundation. However, once you have a solid following, you will find that using the same hour a day you spend (or three in Kim Kardashian’s case) you will gain more followers. I noticed that I went from getting about 20 followers a day to over 100 without spending additional time. If you have more followers, you will have more people who regularly retweet you which will get your messages across. You will also be better at writing tweets and picking the best articles to write or share.

Halfway up the mountain 10,000 feet (or followers) high
I have tweeted far and wide, and well past base camp which I passed several months back. It’s too late to turn back now. But, I am excited to see what is in front of me. I will breathe easier as I reach new plateaus (good thing this isn’t an actual mountain; otherwise I’d need an oxygen tank at this point.) My journey would have been much easier if I had had a Sherpa, but I guess hiking Mt. Twitterest doesn’t work that way. But, when I get stuck for ideas, I just ask my imaginary Sherpa for one.

Having it all figured out
After having struggled on Twitter for years, I feel like I have somewhat figured it out. I remember the types of hurdles I went through four years ago wondering why nobody liked my lame tweets. I learned to warm up my tweets to make them fun to read. I also learned how to experience and analyze which types of topics, articles and tweets do best. At this point, it is just about repeating the process. But, repeating the process means exploring many interesting articles and new themes for articles that I will soon write. Although I feel I know it all now, the growth rate, and the type of situations I will run into will continue to change — and there will never be a dull moment, but if there is, I’ll make sure it doesn’t show up on my feed!

Using Twitter as a tool rather than an addiction
I feel that I am too obsessive about Twitter. I shouldn’t spend as much time as I do. Google+ doesn’t get me much results, but it does get me SEO value whenever I publish anything. If I spent five minutes less on Twitter and spent those five minutes publishing daily on Google+, I would be using Twitter as a tool rather than an obsession. Every several months, I come up with a new plan to optimize my daily schedule. I think I just figured out my next small adjustment. Putting time management aside, use Twitter to learn new skills, read new articles, and figure out what works. You don’t need two hours a day for this. You can get huge on Twitter in as little as half an hour per day and still be able to follow, unfollow, tweet, select great articles, and interact with others.

The dream I had when I hit 10,000
I actually had this dream a month ago. I was hiking. Then, I got to a part in the trail that was too steep to hike up. I had to grab on to the long grass and pull my self up the slope for a stretch. Then, I got to a part which was very rocky and I had to climb up very treacherous sections. Finally I arrived at a ledge above me which I wouldn’t be able to get past unless I became a spider who could crawl upside down and backwards to get to the edge of it and then on top. But, I glanced to the right and there was a trail covered by a wooden structure. I quickly made my way into the wooden walkway and it led to a French restaurant and pastry shop. There were twelve choices for fruit pies; eleven after my imaginary Sherpa appeared out of nowhere and got his hands on one. My interpretation of this dream was that I had struggled up hill for years, but now I would enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Mastering other networks
I did spend two years trying to master Facebook, Google plus and a few other social media networks. I made excellent progress and our Notary Facebook account generates over 5000 clicks per month to my blog which is amazing. However, I never felt pulled towards those networks in the long run.

Social Media Saying:
Why do I keep climbing Mt. Twitterest? Because its there!